Yeah.. its odd how experienced everyone seemingly is, in spite of the fact that in all of my years of training, in all of the dojos that I've been to, I've only met 4-5 of the people on this web site in real life. Perhaps if I went to Aiki-Expo... After Dennis Hooker's thread, I've realized that this is in fact because many or most of the most vocal people here don't actually train in Aikido, so I'd have to try other arts to meet them.
It also makes it more clear to me just how large the Aikido community actually is, how much variety there is in technique and practice, and that if you don't get out much, you don't meet many of the practitioners or see their techniques. I certainly don't go out much these days. Additionally, most of the best Aikidoka I've met, known, heard about, and seen are smart enough to avoid posting on this site..
But still, I've got to do something when I get sick of writing code.
Rob